Sarajevo, 6.12.2024 – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Help Line demand by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the Intelligence –  Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (OSA), as well as by the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior Affairs  an urgent safety measures for the journalist Avdo Avdić, the editor of the Istraga.ba portal, due to serious indications that a person from drug circles planned his murder.

According to the Istraga portal, Dino Muzaferović, the person who planned the murder of Avdo Avdić, was arrested in Slovenia. However, the BH Journalists Steering Committee and the Free Media Help Line believe that the safety´s risks to the life of this journalist and his family have not been eliminated, and that he must be provided with police protection and special supervision twenty-four hours a day.

BH Journalists point out that journalist Avdo Avdic has been writing about international criminal circles linked to drug cartels and their leaders for the years, which is why he received serious threats and was under constant pressure. We regret to state that this journalist was not only threatened by persons from the criminal milieu, but also by politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the highest state officials, by which they tried to professionally discredit and dehumanize Avdić, and create a circle of violence and security risks around him by presenting himself as a “criminal”. None of these cases ended with the punishment of the attackers, although it is quite clear that both threats and attacks were undertaken with the aim of the stopping Avdić’s writing about crime and corruption!

The BH Journalists Steering Committee and the Free Media Help Line strongly condemn the impunity of violence and threats against Avdo Avdić, and urgently demand from the competent police and prosecutorial structures in BiH a public statement on the measures they will take now that they have reliable information about the planning of the murder of our colleague. We also urgently demand a statement from the police and the judiciary on the measures taken to sanction the persons behind the previous, still unpunished threats and attacks on Avdić, including the monitoring of the scandalous video and its publication on social networks in May 2024.

BH Journalists Steering Committee